The Flipped Classroom in World History

Judy E. Gaughan

Colorado State University-Pueblo

A new method of classroom approach is called the flipped classroom. In a flipped classroom, the professor in a college class would provide students with lectures outside of scheduled classroom time, in the form of homework. Then the professor would engage in classroom discussions over the lecture and learning how to work with materials. This flipped was performed in the classroom of a professor at Colorado State University-Pueblo. The professor posted videos of the lectures on a YouTube channel that students could access through their blackboard accounts. The professor decided to take the flipped classroom approach because of low enrollment in history courses and due to the students enrolling who found college level work difficult for them and were not used to all the readings that college level history courses require. The flipped classroom allowed for students to access the videos and other files on blackboard and enter the class having already gone over the material being discussed that day. It allowed for the teacher to engage in discussions about material, students could ask more questions and were not distracted by taking notes and not paying attention to the actual spoken lecture by the professor. Students were also able to learn the true work of historians by learning to differentiate between primary and secondary sources as well as other materials needed in research. The professor of over a decade, Judy E. Gaughan found that her students responded well to the flipped classroom approach. This could be an interesting classroom to teach or be a student in, to learn in a different way using video lectures that can be paused and rewind when material is not being processed.